Chuck Most

I've built a few Hudson pickup conversions before, but I wanted to go for more of a crude, "backyard- built" kind of vibe with this one. The trunk and rear roof section were cut away, and I laid a diamond-pattern tread plate right over the existing floor. Some framework was built above the opening, and at the back, a plank of wood is shoved between this framework and the body to serve as the tailgate. The truck has been abandoned for a number of years, so the bed has been filled with random junk, and at some point the old farmer borrowed the gas cap and battery and forgot to replace them. He also forgot to close the hood, because I've always wanted to put the hinges and prop rods included in the kit to use. The engine is a Ford 240, which may have ended up being the second-generation Hudson Hornet Six, as the Ford Big Six was designed under the eye of Bernie Siegfried, who had also engineered the 7x Twin H engine for Hudson. When he left Hudson, he took his OHV straight six designs with him and many of those features became part of the Ford 240/300. A few other Ford doodads made it onto the car- the wheels are from a Moebius F-100, and the tires are from a Revell Bronco. I stole the plow of a long-stalled '77 Jeep project for use here. The mirrors came from a Revell Jeep J-10.

Think I saw that car behind a barn in the early '90's. Nice!

I want to buy the tractor, just so I know for sure that it really exists.

This started out with the Moebius Mel's Drive In '52 Club Coupe. From there, I added the scoop from a '53, the wheels and tires from the Matty Winspur '54, a scratchbuilt header, and a hand made manifold with Hilborn mechanical injection. The car is also upgraded to a 12 volt charging system. The idea is a car early in it's career as a '60's drag machine, the "Hudsonic" lettering is just stick-on vinyl letters (Microscale decals in real life) for now, maybe eventually it will have some custom-printed Hudsonic graphics at some point. As it stands, the car is still theoretically street legal with the addition of some treaded rear tires, if you can handle the driveability issues of mechanical fuel injection on the street.

In other news, Chrysler has only had two cars in their lineup for years. Wait... with the discontinuation of the 200, they only have one. Honestly, I often wonder why any of the domestic automakers bother with cars at all anymore. Go to any Ford, GM, or Chrysler dealer and 95% of what's on the lot are pickups and SUV/crossover type vehicles. Granted I live in an area with a high concentration of hicks, but even the larger dealers seem to skew more toward trucks than anything else.

Don't hold your breath- it might be a while.

The headers look like they might be from one of the '55-'57 Chevy street rod pickup kits... but I'm not entirely certain of that. I don't think the engine itself is from one of those kits.

Just to clarify- The GMC kit is an entirely different piece- it was newly tooled for the Revell reissue. The MPC plow even had a (molded plastic) chain- a detail Revell completely overlooked on their plow. You can get the MPC Jeep plow from Replicas and Miniatures Co. of Maryland but I think the other guys are on the right track of this one being an old Don Loomis casting. I know the R&M Co. product well, it was the first resin part I ever bought. You're dead-on with the Jeepster being the resin plow's origin. You're right- the MPC/AMT 1500 kits had small hinges molded to the bottom rear corners where the hood fits against the cowl, while the photos show round pins that the Testors kits have. I think even the AMT promo hoods had the hinges, but there were mounting pins molded to the front edge to fasten the hood to the core support. #10 is from a Revell '37 Ford Panel truck, and that may also have been the source of the artillery wheel shown in #12. The same wheels are included in the pickup variant. As far as the Firebird hood- I want to say the most recent reissue (AMT/Ertl) reissue of that one came with two hoods, one of which was close to the one shown, but I'm not certain of that.

I may have stumbled across the answer on my own while looking for something else entirely... Looks like it's a Studezilla from Freeman Cars.

I've had this old custom Studebaker for a while, and I'm not sure who cast it. I've seen a few Bullet Nose bodies in the past but not with a custom hard top and boat tail style deck like this one has. Something in my brain keeps swinging between Jimmy Flintstone and R&R but I honestly have no idea.

Very cool! I've had a similar idea in mind for the Foose 56, but mine was to do an updated version of Ed Roth's shop truck.

I'm not sure what you mean, are you asking about cutting the kit windshield? I didn't do that- I just cut material out of the a-pillars and made a new windshield from .010" styrene. The windshield molding was made from D-strip plastic, it overlaps the opening a bit and the clear plastic is glued onto the inside. The air filter is the same Testors Mythical Maroon I used on the body- I gave the vanes in the air cleaner a black wash. It actually isn't a bad match for a K&N element in scale.

But if you're building an '80's street machine or some high-school kid's ride, you need the yellow wires! (And red boots...) Sometimes cheap is just the look you want.

This was the 25th Hornet I've built, so it had to be at least an attempt at "epic", right? The idea was a late '90's Pro Touring style, with a few traditional custom touches. To that end, the top was chopped and "hardtopped', the hood was sectioned, tunneled headlights from an AMT '49 Mercury, a custom grille, shaved bumpers, and tail fins and lamps from the Foose Cadillac. Trim was eliminated and/or painted charcoal grey. The rear window is the stock size, just tipped forward. The wheels and tires are from Jimmy Flintstone- the white metal wheels had the rims polished, while the centers were painted in the same charcoal paint used for the trim. Other than the wheel rims, the only other bright work is the slash-cut exhaust pipes cut from K&S tubing and set into the bumper. After leaning toward a metallic silver paint job (hence the grey/black interior), I ultimately opted for a metallic red. I think that George Poteet's Trepainer-built "Sniper" '53 Plymouth may have influenced me a bit in a few areas on this one. The engine is the factory 308 block, but the idea was "What if somebody dropped off a Hudson block at Uncommon Engineering with a blank check and told Steve to just 'go crazy'". To that end, the engine is fitted with a scratch built DOHC head and manifolds, a turbo from Hobby Design, and an all new front cover/accessory drive with an alternator, A/C compressor, and power steering pump. The air cleaner is an open-element type with a factory Hudson air cleaner top. The interior is actually the most tame part- aside from a Detail Master gauge panel, a photoreduced CD player stereo unit, parts-box center console with shifter and hand brake, and Taurus SHO seats it's mostly out of the box. Now that I think of it I used a Momo steering wheel and a parts box column as well. With the car being red I wish I'd gone with a tan interior, but the dark grey/black one looks good enough, and it's barely visible from the outside anyway. After toying around with a few side mirror ideas, I ultimately opted to use the factory units, stripped of chrome and painted the same charcoal black as the rest of the "de-chromed" bits.

Welcome aboard, Mike.

Very cool!

I've wanted to build an abandoned custom car for a while, and to do another custom Hornet convertible, so I killed two birds with one stone on this one. I also wanted to do a car with Jade Idol-style quad headlights, so... three birds with one stone, I guess? So here it is, a custom built by some young guy in the early '60's that never got 100% finished, then spent a long time mothballed and was recently unearthed. Wire wheels from the '52 Mel's club coupe were used on the front, and the suspension was lowered. A spare Hudson body coughed up the forward parts of it's fenders for the lower headlights, and the custom grille was hand made, along with the rockers and skirts. The Carson-style top is an old R&R vacuum formed piece meant for a '49 Mercury, it was reworked to fit the Hornet body and integrated with some plated moldings. Rear quarters and tail lights from a '56 Chevrolet were also grafted into the body. The hood was sectioned and laid back- I left the "surgical scars" exposed and highlighted them with some rust effects. The interior is stock aside from the padded custom steering wheel from an AMT '49 Mercury kit, and the 308 Twin H straight six was left totally stock. I tried for a yellowed, aged look on the whitewalls, but wasn't happy with it, so let's just say this has had new tires installed since it's discovery.

Looks great! I always like to have a couple of these kits in the arsenal at all times- I think they're one of Tamiya's best offerings ever.

Nice! Love the turtle deck and the fact you kept the stock four-banger.

I thought Lumpy was the baby wookie from the Star Wars Holiday Special.

This started out as a way to get rid of some cast-off parts from other projects and some leftover odds and ends. The engine was fitted with a Morgan Automotive Detail finned head, and a three-carb turbocharger setup. The body was an abandoned phantom business coupe idea- I decided to make the car look like an old/unfinished custom job that was unearthed and reborn as a ratty rod. I modified the dash to resemble a '48-'50 style dash, but retained the '51-'53 style windshield and side window trim, modified to work with the new roof line, of course. The grille is a cut down Terraplane piece from RatrodzRus, fitted with a '52 hood ornament. The taillights are '54 pieces. Those, the hood ornament, and the rear bumper, are about the only parts on the model that weren't reworked in some way or another.

Just nabbed this '68 Lincoln a few days ago. I'm pondering not replacing the forward part of the roof for the rebuild. I am very glad that it came with the stock bumpers though.

Oh well, you'll just have to catch herpes the old fashioned way.

A Reo by Rowley? You have my full and undivided attention.